Saturated Fat and Cancer Progression

Does it have to be all or nothing, though? Researchers at the University of Texas followed a few hundred men after they had their prostates removed for cancer, and split them into a high saturated fat group and a low saturated fat group, and asked the simple question: does just cutting down on meat improve cancer-free survival?

Now this was Texas, so that meant comparing those who ate the equivalent of three-quarters of a bucket of fried chicken’s worth of saturated fat, to those eating half a bucket’s worth a day. The question is, did that modest drop in meat consumption significantly improve cancer-free survival, or do you really have to cut out all meat to see a significant effect?

This is how long men lived before their cancer came back, eating that much saturated fat a day. Those who ate less saturated fat got this far out before their cancer returned. Less than 20 months, versus more than 40 months. That’s the difference even a quarter bucket of chicken’s worth of saturated fat may make, if we have cancer. Obviously, cutting out all saturated animal fat is better, but it’s not all or nothing.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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• S. S. Strom, Y. Yamamura, M. R. Forman, C. A. Pettaway, S. L. Barrera, and J. DiGiovanni. Saturated fat intake predicts biochemical failure after prostatectomy. Int. J. Cancer, 122(11):2581- 2585, 2008.

• animal fat
• cancer
• cancer survival
• flexitarians
• men's health
• prostate cancer
• prostate health
• saturated fat